Review by: Brian Clair

Witchaven 2 places you right after your victory in the first Witchaven game. Having slain the evil witch of Char you return to your village for a celebration. However, when you awaken in the morning the entire town is deserted. Soon thereafter a dragon appears and destroys the village, giving you heed that the sister of the witch you just killed has taken offense to your actions and wants you dead. Gathering up your gear, you head north to do battle with this witch and her many minions…

The game starts with a movie of the story I just wrote above and it is in SVGA (like the rest of the game). In fact, the intro makes special note of the original Witchaven and even reuses some of the movie sequences from the first game. When I first saw this, I thought to myself, “Well, at least they’re keeping things together.” This however, doesn’t quite make up for the poor quality of the introduction. The video is of low quality, lower than even the first Witchaven (whose opening movie was fantastic by comparison). Luckily, Witchaven 2 makes up for this with the rest of the game which is by far not only armed with phenominal graphics but gory detail. I used the full game for this review (after all, there’s no demo).

Witchaven 2 uses nearly the same game engine as the original game with a few improvements. First off, you can actually use 2 weapons at the same time (and you start off the game being able to do it too as you still maintain a decent experience level). You may also use a shield whenever you desire, it’s not forced upon you. Witchaven was a game that made much more of standard weapons and little of magic but Witchaven 2 is the complete opposite. You start the game being able to cast all of the spells (you must still find them however, but don’t worry because they are numerous). Plus, there are magical fonts in the game which, when you bathe in them, give all the weapons you’re carrying magical power for a period of time (determined by use, not actual game time).

There are also many different and powerful creatures running throughout Witchaven 2. All are armoured and most are armed with brutal weapons (sometimes magical) and even magical spells. The creature are so well drawn and animated that their movement and actions are nearly flawless. For example, for one type of soldier, when you kill him you break through his chest plate and see his guts spill out in front of you. For those of you who aren’t quite so hardy to violence (which makes me wonder why you play these games), Witchaven 2 allows you to turn off the gore.